In the last couple of episodes of Creating Your Encore Career, I’ve been talking about Mike Kim’s eight steps to building a profitable personal brand. We went over his PB3 method and the importance of having strong partnerships. 

Today, I want to talk about another aspect of his eight-step method: positioning and pitching.

If your goals include earning, learning, and leaving a legacy, you must learn how to position and pitch yourself well. Mastering these skills is the key to creating a thriving Encore Career. 

Why wouldn’t you want that? After all, people in the second half of life are essential to the full functioning of our economy.

Positioning

What does positioning even mean? Well, it’s simply one way to establish your brand identity. There are three different categories of brand identity:

• Visual identity 

• Verbal identity

• Value identity 

Visual identity is established through your logo and perhaps professional photos. Verbal identity is established through your copy and being consistent with your visuals. Finally, value identity is established through your positioning.

You want your positioning to be that of a high-value brand.

Think about Louis Vuitton. Now think about Walmart. While the first brand is viewed as a luxury brand, the second’s motto is “Low Prices Every Day.” 

You’re aiming for the Louis Vuitton position in your Encore Career. This doesn’t mean you can’t have affordable products. It just means you must position yourself as high-value.

Pitching

Pitching is another extremely important aspect of creating an Encore Career. There are many best practices to it but let’s talk about a few.

1. Always keep this question top of mind when pitching: “How can I help with this person’s problem?” 

2. Listen deeply first, before doing anything else for your client. 

3. It is important to have a script but what’s most important is that you’re asking good questions and listening. 

4. When pitching to a potential client, say:

• “Here’s what we will cover in our call.”

• “What is the problem you want to be solved and why?”

• “What else have you tried?”

On top of these best practices, create big marketing pushes three times per year (every four months). This will keep your pitching consistent.